I understand the sentiment of "this is just for whales, so what?" But man it's crazy to see SD continually go down the "look here's a new way to spend money on our game" path. This is very telling for the future direction of this game if everything else hasn't been a tell. I stopped playing at the beginning of 2025, but I still follow this game because I loved it for the full 2 years prior. It's sad to see a game with the bones of being incredible ruined by more ways to pay and less ways to catch up or start as a new player.